Grouping Rows in Excel

Organizing the large data by combining the subcategory data is the process and it’s called “Grouping of Rows” in excel. When the number of items in line is not important then we can choose group rows that are not important but see the subtotal of those rows only. When the data rows are huge scrolling down and reading the report may lead to wrong understanding so the grouping of rows helps us to hide the unwanted numbers of rows.

The number of rows is also lengthy when the worksheet contains detailed information or data. As a report reader of the data they don’t want to see lengthy rows instead they just want to see the detailed view but at the same time if they require any other detailed information they need just a button to expand or collapse the view as required.

In this article, we will show you how to group rows in excel with expand/collapse to maximize the report viewing technique.

How to Group Rows in Excel with Expand/Collapse?

You can download this Group Rows Excel Template here – Group Rows Excel Template

For example, look at the below data.

In the above data table we have city and state-related sales and cost data, but when you look at the first two rows of the data we have “California” state and city is “Los Angeles” but sales happened at different dates, so as a report reader everybody prefers to read what the state-wise sales and city-wise sales in single column, so by grouping the rows we can create a single line summary view.

Follow the below steps to group rows in excel.

Step 1: First create a subtotal like the below one.

Step 2: Now select the first state rows (California City) excluding subtotals.

Step 3: Go to the DATA tab and chose the “Group” option.

Step 4: Click on the drop-down list in excel of “Group” and choose “Group” again.

Step 5: Now it will ask you whether to group rows or columns. Since we are grouping “Rows” choose rows and click on ok.

Step 6: The moment you click on “Ok” you can see a joint line on the left-hand side.

Click on the “MINUS” icon and see the magic.

Now we could see only what is the total summary for the city “California”, again if you want to see the detailed summary of the city you can click on the “PLUS” icon to expand the view.

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Now again select the city “Colorado” and click on the “Group” option.

Now it will group for the “Colorado” state.

Group by Using Shortcut Key

With a simple shortcut in excel, we can group selected rows or columns very easily. The shortcut key to quickly group the data is SHIFT + ALT + Right Arrow Key.

First, select the rows that need to be grouped.

Now press the shortcut key SHIFT + ALT + Right Arrow Key to group these rows.

In the above, we have seen how to group the data and how to group row with expand and collapse option by using PLUS & MINUS icons.

The only problem with the above method is we need to do this for each state individually so this takes a lot of time when there are a lot of states that are there. What would be your reaction if I say you can group with just one click???

Amazing isn’t it? By using “Auto Outline” we can automatically group the data.

Example #1 – Using Auto Outline

The first thing we need to do is to create subtotal rows.

Now place a cursor inside the data range. Under Group drop-down we can see one more option other than “Group” i.e. “Auto Outline”.

The moment you click on this “Auto Outline” option it will group all the rows which are there above the subtotal row.

How cool is this??? Very cool isn’t it??

Example #2 – Using Subtotals

If grouping the rows for the individual city is the one problem then even before grouping rows there is another problem i.e. adding subtotal rows.

When hundreds of states are there it is a tough task to create subtotal row each state separately, so we can use the “Subtotal” option to quickly create a subtotal for the selected column.

For example, we had the data like the below before creating subtotal.

Under the Data tab, we have an option called “Subtotal” right next to the “Group” option.

Click on this option by selecting any of the cells of the data range, it will show below option first up.

First select the column that needs to have a subtotal, in this example we need subtotal for “State” so select the same from the drop-down list of “At each change in”.